# pgterminate > Terminates active and idle PostgreSQL backends Did you encountered long-running queries locking down your entire company system because of a massive lock on the database? Or a scatterbrained developper connected to the production database with an open transaction leading to a production outage? Never? Really? Either you have very good policies and that's awesome, or you don't work in databases at all. With `pgterminate`, you shouldn't be paged at night because some queries has locked down production for too long. It looks after "active" and "idle" connections and terminate them. As simple as that. # Highlights * `pgterminate` name is derived from `pg_terminate_backend` function, it terminates backends. * backends are called sessions in `pgterminate`. * use `cancel` option to terminate query instead of session. * `active` sessions are backends in `active` state for more than `active-timeout` seconds. * `idle` sessions are backends in `idle`, `idle in transaction` or `idle in transaction (abort)` state for more than `idle-timeout` seconds. * at least one of `active-timeout` and `idle-timeout` parameter is required, both can be used. * `pgterminate` relies on `libpq` for PostgreSQL connection. When `host` is ommited, connection via unix socket is used. When `user` is ommited, the unix user is used. And so on. * time parameters, like `connect-timeout`, `active-timeout`, `idle-timeout` and `interval`, are represented in seconds. They accept float value except for `connect-timeout` which is an integer. * if you want `pgterminate` to terminate any session, ensure it has SUPERUSER privileges. Since 9.6, grant `pg_signal_backend` role for terminating all sessions except superusers. # Internals ## Signals `pgterminate` handles the following OS signals: * `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM` to gracefully terminates the infinite loop * `SIGHUP` to reload configuration file and re-open log file if used (handy for logrotate) ## Configuration There's two ways to configure `pgterminate`: * command-line arguments * configuration file with `-config` command-line argument Configuration file options **override** command-line arguments # Usage Connect to a remote instance and prompt for password: ``` pgterminate -host 10.0.0.1 -port 5432 -user test -prompt-password -database test ``` Use a configuration file: ``` pgterminate -config config.yaml ``` Use both configuration file and command-line arguments: ``` pgterminate -config config.yaml -interval 0.25 -active-timeout 10 -idle-timeout 300 ``` Print usage: ``` pgterminate -help ``` # Filtering users `pgterminate` is able to include or exclude users from being terminated. ## Configuration ### List Arguments `-include-user` or `-exclude-user` can be used multiple times for multiple users: ``` pgterminate -include-user user1 -include-user user2 ``` Or in configuration file: ``` include-users: user1 user2 ``` Same applies for `-exclude-user` (argument) and `exclude-users` (file). ### Regexes Regexes can be configured: ``` pgterminate -include-users-regex "(user1|user2)" ``` Or in configuration file: ``` include-users-regex: "(user1|user2)" ``` Same applies for `-exclude-users-regex` (argument) and `exclude-users-regex` (file). ## Include users When include users list or regex is set, `pgterminate` will focus on included users only. It could terminate excluded users if any. If you want to exclude users, use exclude options only. ## Exclude users When exclude users list or regex is set and no include option is set, `pgterminate` will terminate all sessions except excluded users. # License `pgterminate` is released under [The Unlicense](https://github.com/jouir/pgterminate/blob/master/LICENSE) license. Code is under public domain.